INTAKT RECORDS – CD-REVIEWS


TRIO 3 + GERI ALLEN
CELEBRATING MARY LOU WILLIAMS
LIVE AT BIRDLAND NEW YORK

 

 

Der Titel ist Programm - Celebrating Mary Lou Williams Live at Birdland New York (Intakt CD 187). An fünf Abenden im August 2010 spielten das TRIO 3 + GERI ALLEN Stücke einer Pianistin, die mit ihren Kompositionen und Arrangements den Jazz mitprägte wie keine andere Frau ihrer Generation (1910-1981). Sie hatte - in Andy Kirks The Twelve Clouds of Joy - maßgebend den Kansas City Sound bereichert und ihr Ding called Swing auch in die Bands von Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington und den anderen Swing-Größen eingebracht. In den 40ern wurde ihre Wohnung in Harlem dann zur Brutstätte des Bebop, einige ihrer Einfälle hallen bei Monk wider. 1957 feierte sie nach einem mageren Jahrzehnt ein Comeback, brauchte sich auch von einem McCoy Tyner nichts vormachen lassen und wagte 1977 sogar ein Duett mit Cecil Taylor. Dazwischen lag ihre Konversion zum Katholizismus, aus der ihr Album Black Christ of the Andes und mehrere Messen resultierten. Dass gerade diese vier Modern Jazz-Größen Wiliams huldigen, kommt nicht von ungefährt. Andrew Cyrille hatte als junger Hüpfer für sie getrommelt, Allen hatte als Studentin an ihren Fingern gehängt und sie in Robert Altmans Kansas City (1996) dann sogar verkörpert. 7 Kompositionen werden gespielt, nicht auf alt und 'echt' gemacht, sondern so 'perpetually contemporary', wie Ellington die Pianistin charakterisiert hatte: 'Blues for Peter' (1975), das allerhand Turbulenzen anklingen lässt, hatte sie auf ihren katholischen Mentor Peter O'Brien gemünzt, der heute ihre Stiftung leitet und die Linernotes verfasst hat; 'Ghost of Love' (1938) ist ein leichtes Schweben voller Pianozärtlichkeit und Oliver Lakes sehnendem Altogesang; das flott rhythm'n'bluesende 'New Musical Express' (1953), das während der Jazz-Baisse entstand, als sie in Europa tingelte, lässt die Röcke fliegen und gipfelt in Tänzchen von Reggie Workman am Bass und von Cyrille als Hardbopper; 'Intermission' (1973) groovt im 11/4-Pizzikato mit hitzig-hymnischem Alto; bei 'What's Your Story, Morning Glory' (1938) versetzt einen Lake direkt ins Heartbreak Hotel; 'Libra' (1944) bringt von der Zodiac Suite die Hommage an Bud Powell als Allen-Solo; 'Roll'Em' schließlich, 1936 für Goodman geschrieben, zeigt noch einmal um eine Bassimprovisation herum Marys Idee von Swing, wobei Cyrille galoppiert, dass es nur so rappelt.
Rigobert Dittmann, Bad Alchemy, Deutschland, 70_2011

 

Manfred Papst, NZZ am Sonntag, Zürich, 31. Juli 2011

 

Frank von Niederhäusern, Kulturtipp, August 2011, Schweiz

 

Christoph Wagner, Schwarzwälder Bote, 6. August 2011, Deutschland

 

sth. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 12. August 2011

 

 

Glenn Astarita. All About Jazz, USA, 2011

 

 

 

 

Peter Ruedi, Die Weltwoche, 1. September 2011

 

Wolf Kampmann, Jazzthing, September/Oktober 2011, Deutschland

 

Arne Reimer, Portrait über Andrew Cyrille, Jazzthing, September/Oktober 2011, Deutschland

 

Interview mit Geri Allen, Christoph Wagner, Jazzthetik, Sept./Okt. 2011, Deutschland

 

Geri Allen kann natürlich diese erdige, blueslastige Grundstimmung besonders gut generieren. Auch anschlagstechnisch scheint sie sich an der Williams zu orientieren (harter, präziser Anschlag!). Über das Trio 3 kann man natürlich immer nur ins Schwärmen geraten. Was die drei ‚alten' Herren da im Birdland an Gerissenheit, Charme, musikalischer Grandezza hören lassen, ist eine Wucht. Niemandem etwas beweisen zu müssen, einfach die Ernte von drei bewegten Musikerleben einfahren und sich der Gegenwart erfreuen. "Ghost Of Love" ist wahrscheinlich der spirituelle Höhepunkt dieses Konzertes gewesen. Von schauriger, karger Schönheit kann man da sprechen. Beeindruckend. Bei "Libra" meditiert die Pianistin noch einmal überzeugend über ein Thema der großen Mary Lou Williams, die heuer 101 Jahre alt geworden wäre. Hommage also mehr als verdient!
Ernst Mitter, Freistil Nr. 39, Herbst 2011, Österreich

 

Thorsten Meyer, Jazzpodium, Oktober 2011, Deutschland

 

Martin Schuster, Concerto, Oktober/November 2011, Österreich

 

El homenaje a la pianista Mary Lou Williams sirve de excusa nuevamente para una grabación entre el grupo de veteranos Trio 3 y la pianista Geri Allen. La relación entre el grupo y la homenajeada viene de lejos. El baterista Andrew Cyrille fue integrante de sus grupos, mientras que Geri Allen interpretó el papel de la pianista en la película Kansas City de Robert Altman.
El CD publicado por Intakt fue grabado en dos de los cinco días en los que el cuarteto actuó en el Birdland neoyorkino. Todos los temas grabados pertenecen al legado de la pianista. Salvo "Libra", interpretada en solitario por Geri Allen y perteneciente a la célebre Zodiac Suite de Williams, el resto de piezas sirven para mostrar el magnífico entendimiento del cuarteto, así como los magníficos solistas que son los cuatro músicos. Las composiciones recorren distintas tradiciones del jazz como el bop (New Musical Express"), el swing ("Roll'Em"), o el blues ("What's Your Story Morning Glory" que termina lentamente transformado en una balada, "Blues for Peter"). Estas actúan de trampolines desde los cuales los músicos se lanzan a unas magníficas improvisaciones en las que no se olvidan de dónde vienen, pero en las que tampoco se resisten a sumergirse en pasajes de una gran libertad.
Pachi Tapiz, bun.tomajazz.com, 1 DE NOVIEMBRE DE 2011, Spain

 

John Sharpe, THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD, November 2011, USA

 

Alain Drouot, Downbeat, December 2011, Great Britain

 

Mary Lou Williams’ music was documented for more than half a century, which is a millennium in jazz time. She has been made a beacon for women in jazz, becoming the namesake of the planet’s most prestigious festival dedicated to women jazz artists. Still, most enthusiasts of either gender – even those who are aware of the influence she had on Thelonious Monk and others – would be hard pressed to name even a few of Williams’ works, and even fewer could ID her music blindfolded. This makes a project dedicated to her music trickier than, say, Monk’s, in that it is harder for most listeners to parse out the subtle licenses in interpretation. Additionally, while the approach to swing and the blues in her compositions and characteristics of her piano style are distinctive in a nuts and bolts sense, there’s a grace about Williams’ music, regardless of the secular or sacred intent of a given piece, that defies analysis – it’s there, and that’s about all you can say about it. Unless the interpreter of her music understands how to promote that grace, the results will be empty at its core.

Although Williams’ music has been revisited by various artists with appreciable degrees of success, pianist Geri Allen conveys an innate sense of Williams’ grace on Celebrating Mary Lou Williams, a collaboration with Trio 3 recorded at Birdland. She is also extremely well-equipped to synthesize Williams’ music with present-day piano lexicons. Subsequently, Allen’s interpretations are fresh and entail substantial risks at times; but, unfailingly, the aura of Allen’s connection with Williams remains bright. Certainly, the presence of drummer Andrew Cyrille, who played in Williams’ trio and worked with her artist-assisting Bel Canto Foundation, is fortifying to this end; but so too are the contributions of alto saxophonist Oliver Lake and bassist Reggie Workman. Having already logged sufficient hours on the bandstand and in the studio to yield At This Time, their substantial 2009 album for Intakt, this was an ensemble ready for what is a more daunting task than perceived at first glance, as any interpretation of Williams’ music in the main has to consider her majestic metamoraphsis from one of the guys to the mother of them all.

Few composer retrospectives span 40 years; fewer reveal the composer to have the continuity of temperament demonstrated by Williams. Mid-‘30s swing vehicles like “Roll ‘Em,” penned for Benny Goodman’s big band, convey a well-grounded verve instead of the delirium that was in vogue; conversely, “Libra” from her watershed 1945 Zodiac Suite has more human than cosmic connotations. The pieces collected on this recording span the boppish “New Musical Express” to the sultry blues of “What’s Your Story, Morning Glory?”; yet, the grace factor coheres them. It is particularly impressive that the focal lens for this aspect of Williams’ music is Lake’s alto, the piquancy and bite of which is in the league of Eric Dolphy, Dudu Pukwana and few others. Lake’s trademarked cries and abrupt, thickly textured flourishes, would seem to be at odds with Williams’ temperament; yet, his foreground presence in the ensembles and his mercurial solos are galvanizing, whether the issue at hand is the loping “Blues for Peter,” “Ghost of Love,” a late ‘30s ballad whose contours are both ethereal and sensuous, or “Intermission,” a simmering, vamp-driven piece in 11/4 that would fit snugly in an early McCoy Tyner Milestone.

Still, Allen is the heart of the album and not simply because of her formative close club encounter with Williams while Allen was still a student at Howard University. Rather, it is Allen’s compatibility with the elastic interplay that the trio has refined over its quarter-century run that allows her to all but bypass an emulative approach to Williams – the appropriate exception being her evocative solo reading of “Libra.” Allen tenaciously stretches the blues form of the rollicking “Roll ‘Em” and the sultry “What’s Your Story, Morning Glory?,” and then snaps it back into its original shape at the turnaround or other key points in a given chorus. Like Lake, Allen also has a keen sense for how much off-center post-bop phrasing to mix into a solo, and how to make the strongest bond between the roots and the branches of jazz lexicons. Her work in tandem with Cyrille and Workman argue for a future trio date; the drummer’s patented brand of swing keeps Allen moving apace while the bassist’s space-soaking sound and incisive phrasing alternately cradles and jostles her playing (and is there another drummer that can so artfully build a solo with just cymbals?).

Celebrating Mary Lou Williams is one of the better recordings of 2011 and is among the very best tribute albums of the past several years. Expect it to place fairly high on year-end best-of lists.
Bill Shoemaker, Point of Departure, 36. September 2011

 

Petter Pettersson, Jazznytt, Norway, Autumn 2011

 

 

Con Celebrating Mary Lou Williams (Live at Birdland New York) quattro figure storiche del jazz newyorchese quali come Reggie Workman, Andrew Cyrille ed Oliver Lake (ossia il Trio 3) tornano ad essere affiancati dalla pianista Geri Allen per celebrare la figura di Mary Lou Williams, una tra le prime donne affermatasi nel mondo del jazz alla metà degli anni '30. In primo piano troviamo alcune delle più rappresentative composizioni tra le trecento firmate dalla Williams che offrono un panorama assai variopinto, che spazia tra swing, stride, blues, boogie woogie, bebop, reinterpretato creativamente da questo quartetto nell'intento di infondere la propria sensibilità musicale intrisa di free-forms.
Le composizioni della pianista statunitense scomparsa nel 1981 qui riproposte vanno da una sezione della magnifica "Zodiac Suite" (già affrontata da Geri Allen alla guida del Mary Lou Collective nel disco Zodiac Suite: Revisited) ad avvincenti blues, dove le misure del chorus si alternano tra le canoniche dodici alle più insoliti tredici ed otto. I quattro musicisti tendono a conversare in piena libertà e spregiudicatezza, con repentini cambi di climax espressivo.
La perla più preziosa è la rilettura di "What's your Story, Morning Glory" (1938, forse la composizione più popolare della Williams che la impose come direttore musicale nell'orchestra di Andy Kirk. Il brano acquista inedite coloriture gospel, quasi a sottolineare con il sax di Oliver Lake la forza e l'attualità dell'identità musicale afroamericana dl '900.
Valutazione: 3.5 stelle
Maurizio Zerbo, italia.allaboutjazz.com, 21-05-2011, Italy

 

 

Enzo Boddi / Antonio Terzo, Jazz Colours, Italy, Winter/Spring 2012

 

 

Het is niet de eerste keer dat Mary Lou Williams (1910 – 1981) wordt gefêteerd door hedendaagse jazzcats (Dave Douglas deed het op “Soul On Soul”), maar van dit Trio 3 mag je wel een en ander verwachten. Zeker na hun fantastische “At This Time” waar ze ook al in zee gingen met de jongere pianiste Geri Allen. Voor de duidelijkheid, Trio 3 bestaat uit halve legendes Oliver Lake (sax), Reggie Worlman (bass) en Andrew Cyrille (drums). Mary Lou Williams is dan weer een van de weinige vrouwelijke jazzpianistes die niet alleen status genoot in het mannenbastion, ze slaagde er ook in van de jaren ’30 tot haar dood met de nieuwe richtingen van de muziek mee te evolueren. Zo was ze een mentor voor Charlie Parker tot Cecil Taylor. De cd opent met ‘Blues For Peter’, waar een mooi, bluesy thema af en toe fel onderbroken wordt met korte uitbarstingen. In de solo’s gaat het er af en toe aardig free aan toe, zonder dat de groove ooit uit het oog verloren wordt. ‘Ghost Of Love’ is een ballad, helemaal verankerd in de jazz traditie. ‘New Musical Express’ is een boppish compositie, die terug free koppelt aan die nooit aflatende beat en met heel veel ruimte voor de verschillende muzikanten om helemaal solo hun ding te doen. Alweer valt op wat een fantastisch gerodeerde machine Trio 3 is en hoe moeiteloos Geri Allen hierin meedraait. Op ‘Intermission’ zijn de hoofdrollen voor Workman die de track met zijn bas trancy opentrekt, voor de power akkorden à la McCoy Tyner van Allen en de piepende en knorrende sax van Lake … een absoluut toppertje! En of de Engelse stadionvullende lads ooit royalties betaald hebben voor ‘What’s The Story, Morning Glory’ is twijfelachtig, feit is dat deze Williams compositie hier een heerlijk ruimtelijke interpretatie krijgt. Deze live opname (uit Birdland, New York) is toegankelijker dan vorig werk, maar blijft meesterlijk en energiek. Heel straffe plaat!
Soundslike Jazz, Belgium, 11.11.2011

 

Ce disque est une ode à l'ouverture et à la liberté

Si l'on a largement salué, à juste titre, l'excellent travail orchestral de Sylvia Versini sur Mary Lou Williams (ce qui me paraît plus intéressant que d'aller chercher du côté de Led Zeppelin, soit dit en passant), la démarche du Trio 3 et de Geri Allen est passée beaucoup plus inaperçue, et c'est regrettable. Bien sûr, en quartette, ce ne sont pas les orchestrations et les arrangements de la "First Lady of Jazz" qui ont servi de base à leur travail, mais la fraîcheur incroyable de la musique de Mary Lou — réécoutez ses disques ! Nos quatre musiciens, pourvus d'un bagage et d'une expérience à toute épreuve, étaient particulièrement bien placés pour cela et leur choix s'avère judicieux. Andrew Cyrille joua naguère avec elle, et c'est Geri Allen qui avait été choisie par Robert Altman pour jouer son rôle dans le film "Kansas City". Oliver Lake, très volubile comme à son habitude, attaque les phrases avec tranchant, et Reggie Workman, qui ne se contente pas d'assurer l'assise, aime toujours les contrastes inattendus et les solos aventureux. Ce n'est pas la première œuvre commune des quatre musiciens, mais ce "Celebrating" fait clairement apparaître la filiation entre les deux pianistes. Enregistré au Birdland de New York lors de plusieurs soirées d'août 2010, ce disque est une ode à l'ouverture et à la liberté, celles dont a toujours fait preuve Mary Lou Williams tout au long de sa carrière. On aura peut-être un peu de mal à y retrouver la forme, mais on y saisira l'esprit, et c'est l'essentiel.
Jean Buzelin, Culturejazz, France, Janvier 2012

 

"She is perpetually contemporary. She is like Soul on Soul", sagte Ellington über die First Lady of Jazz, Mother of BeBop, Mentorin und musikalische Neuerin und Pionierin, Komponistin zahlreicher Standards und eine der wichtigsten Frauen in Jazz- und Musikgeschichte. Im August 2010 spielten Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman und Andrew Cyrille als Trio 3 mit der Pianistin Gerri Allen, die bereits in Robert Altmans "Kansas City" die Rolle von Williams gespielt hatte, im New Yorker "Birdland" an fünf Abenden Kompositionen der einflussreichen Jahrhundertmusikerin ein. Auf dieser formidablen CD sind immerhin 8 Stücke, darunter "Ghost of Love", "New Musical Express" und "What's Your Story, Morning Glory", davon enthalten. Dass das Quartett Williams legendären swingenden Vibe, ihr kraftvoll-charismatisches Spiel und auch ihre lyrische Ader ganz selbstverständlich ins Hier und Jazz-Jetzt transformiert, ohne dass Tradition, Gegenwart oder Zukunft des Genres darunter zu leiden haben, belegt die Klasse derartig versierter Spieler aufs Eindringlichste. Es ist alles verschieden, und es ist alles eins.
Made my day by Honker, Terz, Januar 2012, Deutschland

 

The life of Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981) would make a cool movie—a jazz pianist, composer, and arranger whose career intersected with (and impacted upon) Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, and Cecil Taylor, among others, spanning and transcending styles and eras. Yet to recent generations, she's not that well known, and maybe "Celebrating" might help remedy that a little. Trio 3 is a cooperative combo of alto saxophonist Oliver Lake, bassist Reggie Workman, and drummer Andrew Cyrille, and on this live set (Birdland, NYC, 2010) they're joined by ace pianist Geri Allen playing Williams's compositions. Williams
encompassed swing, bebop, European/American classical, and, perhaps most importantly, blues—it's never far from her. The band, especially Lake (very Eric Dolphy-influenced), push the material into some "out" areas, but it's impassioned and focused, never doodle-y. Allen displays the shadings of Williams and Monk, meaning gorgeous lyricism and smart economy…and there's plenty of swing. The recording quality could be a little better (this band kicks ass live), but it does got that swing.
Mark Keresman, ICON, JANUARY 2012, USA

 

A modernist salute to Mary Lou Williams, a pioneering woman composer/pianist, from Geri Allen, a contemporary stylist with similar talents, the remarkable factor about this disc, may be Allen's choice of playing partners: the members of Trio 3. A band which more commonly works with spikier fare, the sounds on Trio 3's CDs usually falls chronologically between what is created by the dedicator and the dedicatée.
Williams (1910–1981), was pianist and chief arranger for Andy Kirk's Twelve Clouds of Joy during the heyday of Kansas City Jazz in the 1930s; went on to be a friend and champion of early Boppers such as Thelonious Monk; composed suites and orchestral pieces throughout her life; and before the end of her career even preformed a duet concert with Cecil Taylor. Although the guiding force behind this pleasantly mainstream salute to Williams was Allen, an academic, post-Bop stylist, and a friend of Williams' confident Peter F. O'Brien S.J., the Trio's drummer Andrew Cyrille, worked with Williams early in his career, and more prominently spent an extended stint in Taylor's unit.
The other Trio members have a similarly rooted background. One of the founders of St. Louis' BAG collective, alto saxophonist Oliver Lake is best-known for his extended membership in the World Saxophone Quart as well as leading his own bands. Bassist Reggie Workman also leads his own groups after an apprenticeship that goes back to 1960s' stints with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey.
Ranging through Williams' compositions from the 1930s to the 1970s, the quartet interprets the pieces in a fashion that's both swinging and staccato. Except for Allen's solo recital-like version of "Libra" from the composer's Zodiac Suite, which is given simple rococo coloration, the other pieces are more outgoing.
"New Musical Express" from the 1950s, for instance, garners a treatment that's bows to both Bop and Boogie Woogie. Allen's bravura reading includes passionate swing and kinetic strums while Lake's passages encompass triple-vibrated, split-tone expressions, in which the odd Dolphyesque run appears. After Workman walks, then rappels up and down his swaying strings, the piece opens up for a Cyrille solo that includes claps, rebounds, drags and bounces, with rim shot action and a continuous beat keeping the line moving, Harmonizing at the finale, the pianist and the altoist together make it seem as if a big band is playing.
There's the same feeling with "Roll 'Em", which Williams write for the 1936 Benny Goodman band. Although Workman walks at times and Cyrille pops and pumps, it's likely Goodman would have given his disapproving hard-eyed "ray" to Lake's solo in that it's all squeak and splutter done with reed-bursting intensity. What defines the piece of course is the lick trading among the sections that follows the bassist's slow-paced double-stopping. Cyrille rolls and beats time; Allen churns through colorful syncopation and tremolo patterns and Lake returns to recap a high-pitched melody variant.
Trio 3 +1 even add a (Rhythm &) bluesier cast to "What's Your Story, Morning Glory", the older pianist's best-known composition. In his best Tab Smith-like fashion, Lake takes the piece a capella at the top, then transforming it too into a squeaker and screamer. However Allen maintains the pace with showy arpeggios and resolute glissandi, finally turning to low-frequency chording as Workman's thumping bass and Lake's blues variations take the tune out.
Commemorative of Williams without being imitative; adding avant-garde touches to her pieces in a configuration that she rarely if ever used; this live set is a fitting tribute to the pioneering composer/pianist. If only more contemporary players would treat older Jazz material this way, dreary recreations would be avoided and Jazz's musical past could be properly and interestingly celebrated.
Ken Waxman, www.jazzword.com, January 20, 2012, Canada

 

Article about Geri Allen, Marco Maimeri, jazzColours, Marzo 2012, Italy (PDF-File)

 

Gonçalo Falcão, jazz.pt #41, março / abril 2012, Portugal (PDF-File with 2 Pages)


 

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